Stafford railway station

Stafford railway station is a major interchange railway station in Stafford, Staffordshire, England, and is the second busiest railway station in Staffordshire, after Stoke-on-Trent. The station serves the market and county town, as well as surrounding villages. The station lies on the junction of the Trent Valley line, the Birmingham Loop/Rugby–Birmingham–Stafford line, and the West Coast Main Line.

Stafford station also formerly served the now defunct Stafford to Uttoxeter and Stafford–Shrewsbury lines.

The current brutalist station building was built in 1962, and is the fourth station to have existed on this site. The interior of the station was refurbished in 2015, which allowed the station to have a new WHSmith store and an improved ticket office.

History


The first station was built by the Grand Junction Railway and opened in July 1837 on the north side of Newport Road. This soon proved to be inadequate, and was replaced in 1844 with a second station, designed by John Cunningham in an Elizabethan style. The station was rebuilt again on a larger scale in 1862, on a site to the north of the older ones, designed by the London and North Western Railway company architect WIlliam Baker in an Italian style. In 1866 a direct approach from the town centre was built, and the North Western Hotel (later the Station Hotel) was built opposite the station, this was demolished in 1972.

The current Brutalist station was built in 1962, by the architect William Robert Headley, built as part of the modernisation programme which saw the electrification of the West Coast Main Line.

Lines originally built by the Stafford and Uttoxeter Railway and the Shropshire Union Railways and Canal Company (to Shrewsbury) also used the station. The Stafford to Uttoxeter line closed to passenger traffic in 1939, with the Shrewsbury line closing as part of the Beeching Axe in 1964.

Following the rebuilding of the station between 1961 and 1962, Isabel, a narrow gauge engine built by local firm WG Bagnall, stood on a plinth on the opposite side of Station Road, at the junction of Railway Street, until it was removed in the mid-1980s. It is now on the Amerton Railway.

Incidents and accidents
Two accidents have happened at Stafford since 1990:
 * On 4 August 1990, an out-of-service train heading to a depot in Birmingham crashed into the back of an express train bound for Penzance on platform 4 at Stafford station. The driver was killed and 36 people were injured.
 * On 8 March 1996, a mail train collided with a freight train carrying liquid carbon dioxide just south of Stafford. A mail sorter was killed and another 22 people were injured. The mail train Class 86 locomotive was catapulted up the embankment and came to rest against a house.

The station today
There are five platforms in use at the station, all of which are accessible from either of the main lines that converge from the south. Platform 1 is usually used for services to London Euston and platform 3 for Avanti northbound services via Crewe from the Trent Valley Line. Platform 4 is usually used for trains towards Birmingham New Street and the West of England. Platform 5 is usually used for CrossCountry services towards Manchester, London Northwestern Railway services towards Liverpool Lime Street and Avanti services to Preston extending to Blackpool or Scotland. Finally, platform 6 is usually used for trains starting/terminating towards/from London Euston, Birmingham New Street, Northampton, Stoke-on-Trent, Crewe and Liverpool Lime Street.

The Stafford Area Improvements Programme improved the track layout around the station so that trains are no longer bound to a platform based upon direction of travel and trains can now use any platform, regardless of direction. Platform 6 used to be the terminus of the Chase Line, however it now terminates at Rugeley Trent Valley. The platform is also sometimes used for railtours, hence why the platform is split into 'a' and 'b' sections.

The former bay platform 2 is no longer used by passenger trains. When Virgin Trains operated the InterCity West Coast franchise, platform 2 served as a stable for their rescue locomotives; this role is now redundant. Occasionally, the bay platform stables other locomotives from freight operators.

The westernmost platform, unofficially known as platform 7, was formerly used by Royal Mail to load mail from the sorting office next door to the platform. This practice has since ended and now the westernmost platform has been converted into a single goods line, with bi-directional operation. This was completed during the bank holiday weekend of 29–31 August 2015.

In October 2012, Network Rail began refurbishment works at the station due to the poor condition of some of the structures. The work included resurfacing the platforms (platforms 1 and 3 had been completed before the works), improving surface and roof drainage, renewing the opaque glazing on the footbridge, installing new canopy roof covers on the platforms and some structural work on the platform supports.

In June 2015, Virgin Trains unveiled £1 million plans to refurbish the entrance, ticket hall and foyer. The work started in November in the same year and was anticipated to be completed within 20 weeks. These were completed March 2016. The changes saw the number of ticket machines at the station double, WHSmith relocation of the travel centre to the current ticket purchasing area and Starbucks took the place of Pumpkin Café Shop. The cafe was also shortened to allow an increased size of the waiting area.

Current facilities
Currently, the station has many facilities which are typical of those across the Avanti West Coast Network; this includes a ticket office, toilets, car park, coffee shop and newsagent.

Stafford Area Improvements Programme
The Stafford Area Improvements Programme by Network Rail aims to allow more trains to run and also aims to reduce journey times by removing key bottlenecks in the area around Stafford.

The programme included large scale building works, north of Stafford station in Norton Bridge, Staffordshire, where a flyover was implemented to allow faster train services, and removed the need to slow down before entering the junction.

Other benefits of the programme, were the introduction of bi-directional signals at Stafford Station, which meant that trains can now use any platform, regardless of direction of travel.

Stafford resignalling
The resignalling aspect of the programme was completed over the bank holiday weekend of 29–31 August 2015. All platforms now have bi-directional signalling, and the goods loop is now operational.

The resignalling programme meant that Stafford signal boxes would be closed, and trains would be controlled from the Rugby Rail Operating Centre (ROC). The last train was signalled from Stafford in the early hours of 29 August 2015, and the first train was signalled from Rugby ROC on the morning of 1 September 2015.

Regular services
From the south, two branches of the West Coast Main Line meet here: the Trent Valley and the Birmingham lines. To the north, the trunk of the line continues towards Crewe, whilst the Manchester branch goes on to Stoke-on-Trent.

The station is currently served frequently by these operators: Avanti West Coast, CrossCountry and West Midlands Trains, under the London Northwestern railway brand. Usual off-peak services at Stafford follow a pattern such as the one below:

Northbound rail services
Avanti West Coast:
 * 1tph to Manchester Piccadilly via Crewe and Wilmslow.
 * 1tph to Preston via Warrington Bank Quay and Wigan North Western:
 * 2 trains per day extend to Blackpool North only, with 1 train every 2 hours running to Edinburgh Waverley (7tpd) and 6 trains per day (tpd) running to Glasgow Central. Services to Scotland run via Carlisle.
 * 1tp2h to Chester, with 6tpd extending to Holyhead and 1tpd to Wrexham General.

London Northwestern Railway:
 * 1tph to Crewe only.
 * 1tph to Liverpool Lime Street via Crewe and Runcorn. (2 tph run at peak times and on Saturdays).
 * 1tph to Crewe via Stone and Stoke-on-Trent.

CrossCountry:
 * 2tph to Manchester Piccadilly via Stoke-on-Trent and Macclesfield.

Other services which operate on a less regular basis are also present at Stafford, including other Avanti West Coast services (e.g. towards Liverpool).

Southbound rail services
Avanti West Coast:
 * 2tph to Euston only
 * 1tph to London Euston via Wolverhampton, Birmingham New Street and Coventry.

London Northwestern Railway:
 * 1tph to London Euston (semi-fast) via Lichfield Trent Valley and Nuneaton
 * 1tph to Birmingham New Street via Wolverhampton and Smethwick Galton Bridge.

CrossCountry:
 * 1tph to Bournemouth via Wolverhampton, Birmingham, Coventry and Reading
 * 1tph to Bristol Temple Meads via Wolverhampton, Birmingham New Street and Cheltenham Spa, with some trains continuing to Paignton or Plymouth.

Future services
There have been proposals to reintroduce services to terminate on the Chase Line, which was cutback to Rugeley Trent Valley in 2008 as well a significant increase in the frequency of local services under Midlands Rail Hub.